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The dots do matter: how to scam a Gmail user

Gmail users Beware! Look carefully at the TO address [not just the FROM address] when you get a suspicious email!

I recently received an email from Netflix which nearly caused me to add my card details to someone else’s Netflix account. Here I show that this is a new kind of phishing scam which is enabled by an obscure feature of Gmail called “the dots don’t matter”. I then argue that the dots do matter, and that this Gmail feature is in fact a misfeature.